DEBATE AT HARTWICK CONFAB

Can State Grow Enough Malt

To Meet Breweries’ Demand?

ONEONTA – What comes first, the chicken or the egg?

At the end of the fourth annual Winter Farm Brewery Weekend Conference this afternoon at Hartwick College, that was the question.The state requires brewers licensed under the state Farm Brewery Act of 2012 to use 20 percent in-state ingredients in their beers, with that rising to 60 percent in 2018 and 90 percent in 2024.

At the center of today’s panel discussion wrapping up the two-day conference were the state’s malt houses – there are only eight.   This year, some participants said, there was more barley grown than the malt houses needed to supply the state’s microbreweries.  Farmer were left with unsold crop.

In two years, though, the demand will triple.  What then?

Sam Filler, who leads Governor Cuomo’s Craft Beverage Initiative for the Empire State Development Corp., said the answer is unknown, but help is on the way.

Cornell-related Harvest NY is developing projections on that question, as is the Carey Center for Global Good in Rensselaerville, Filler said.  He encouraged would-be barley farmers to e-mail the governor’s help line to alert him they are concerned about the issue.

The question matters, according to attendees, because barley for beer could potentially be a dependable cash crops for farmers in Otsego County and across the state, but only if the demand is there.

The Winter Farm Brewery Weekend was brought to Oneonta by Aaron MacLeod, new director of Hartwick’s Center for Craft Food & Beverage, who said there needs to be a continuing conversation among the key players in the beer-chain production — the barley farmers, the malt houses and the brewers.

How successful the state’s growing beer industry will be, it was pointed out, is ultimate up to beer drinkers, and whether the demand for New York beer continues to grow.